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Blizzard's cancelled 'StarCraft: Ghost' leaks in playable form
Blizzard's cancelled StarCraft: Ghost has been the stuff of gaming legend. It was supposed to mark Blizzard's big leap into 3D action games, but it never came to pass -- delays, changing developers and evolving game platforms led the studio to put the game on "indefinite hold." Now, however, gamers appear to be getting a first-hand look at what they've missed. YouTube users Leers Meneses, Delso Bezerra and others say they've obtained a playable build of Ghost for the original Xbox through a leaked developer kit. It's unsurprisingly broken (the first two missions don't work properly, Meneses said), but appears to have been well into development -- you can fend off Zerg and engage in Metal Gear Solid-style chats.
StarCraft: Ghost was announced in 2002, put on "indefinite hold" in 2006, and officially cancelled in 2014. Blizzard is attempting to squash the leak:
In January 2020, videos appearing to be from the Xbox version of the cancelled game started appearing online. On February 16, 2020, numerous videos showing different missions, areas, and gameplay were uploaded to the web. Reports of the Xbox development version game files leaking to the public started to emerge. Journalists at gaming publications such as Kotaku verified the legitimacy of the code that began to disseminate online. Throughout the day, infringement notices were issued to channels hosting footage of the game on YouTube, resulting in many videos being removed. Eventually the files widely disseminated online through filesharing methods such as public torrent trackers. This was the second time a playable, albeit unfinished and rough, version of a Blizzard game has leaked online, after Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans being leaked online in September 2016.
Also at Wccftech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @10:15PM (4 children)
I'd disagree as well. There are "awful" Japanese games because their choice of game mechanics, storyline, game world, etc. doesn't fit my personal preference - but I've never really had experience to the level of Western games where it is clearly pushed out prematurely with bugs galore rendering the actual gameplay a nightmare.
Sure, there are low cost Japanese games where you can see cheap graphics and low quality audio, but that kind of experience is unlike buggy games. And most of the buggy games are from big studios!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday February 17 2020, @11:20PM (3 children)
There may be a bit of a difference in that way, but that's not what I was understanding the OP say. I'd also, be pretty surprised, if there's no equivalent buggy game releases. Maybe, I'm just a bit too pessimistic with regards to game developers nowadays.
Still, some of the best games ever have come from independent game dev studios. A lot of what we're seeing, with regards to the very buggy releases, etc. are behemoth corporations that used to be good dev studios. Then, the corporate takeovers happened and it's release early, release often, move fast and break things. When I look at the state of mobile games and what they've introduced into traditional games, I can't help but think that they asked for it. Sure, there have been games with DLC, with some DLC being worth it more than others. What we didn't have is the fake money buying schemes in every single game, because Money. Though, I guess you could possibly trace that back to Ultima Online and people selling virtual money for real money. It just used to be so much easier to avoid. Whereas now, you have a $60 Activision/Blizzard game that has in-app purchases for random rewards.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday February 18 2020, @02:00PM (2 children)
There's a ton of buggy releases in Japanese gaming too. They just usually aren't released internationally in that state - they typically get released in Japan first, bugs and all, then are patched, then get an international release. Sometimes (mostly on consoles) they get a re-release in Japan as an "International" version that has new features and bug fixes that were made for the exported edition (plus lets them sell the game twice domestically, in case you were thinking they were less greedy than the Western companies, too).
This whole process leads to a perception in the West they are higher quality products sometimes. I've often wondered if the Japanese end up with the same misconception for Western games, which go through a similar process when they're exported...
I agree with the assertion Japanese games not inherently better. They are a different breed entirely. They produce just as much shovelware as the West does; the nature of their shovelware is a bit different but it's not better or worse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @11:48PM (1 child)
Yeah, it is a clear survivorship bias [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @11:51PM
And I just realized someone else beat me to that point.